In a Land of Plenty by Tim Pears

Author:Tim Pears
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781446423547
Publisher: Random House

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While Harry went off to reacquaint himself with his business, Alice, in the remaining fortnight of her summer vacation, set about refurnishing the east wing, which had had little human occupation in recent years; and it hadn’t been decorated for over twenty. Once again a team of decorators was hired, working to instructions not from the man-in-charge this time but from his youngest child.

Alice took Laura with her on a whirlwind tour of the home showrooms on Otley Road, the curtains and fittings sections of the department stores in town, and the carpet warehouses outside the ring road. To make way for their delivery Alice hired three skips for the old furniture that was to be discarded.

Natalie came home at midday from her night shift at the women’s refuge and found the skips overflowing with mattresses, rugs, cupboards, ripped-out shelves and worn-out armchairs. She stormed through the east wing shouting for Alice with such ferocity that the decorators pinned themselves to the walls to let her pass. She found Alice making notes in a distant room on the second floor.

‘What the hell do you think you’re doing, throwing out all that perfectly good furniture?’ Natalie demanded.

‘Oh, I’ve ordered lots of new stuff,’ Alice smiled.

‘But, Alice!’ Natalie shouted, ‘You’ve been to the refuge. That stuff in the skips is like Louis Quatorze compared to what we’ve got.’

‘Well, that’s true,’ Alice agreed. ‘I never thought about it,’ she said brightly.

‘Don’t you think maybe you should have?’ Natalie demanded. ‘How could you be so insensitive all of a sudden? And what are you wasting so much money on all this for anyway?’

‘These’ll be the guest bedrooms on this floor,’ Alice explained.

‘Guests?’ Natalie spat. ‘What guests? Don’t be evasive, Alice, you’re nest-building. You’re building the biggest bloody nest in this iniquitous town.’ She turned round and marched out of the room. Alice followed and called down the corridor after her:

‘You’re welcome to get things out of the skips, Nat.’

‘I bloody well intend to!’ she shouted back without turning round.

It became a chaotic afternoon. Natalie found Robert drinking cans of beer with a couple of his mates in the garage and demanded they volunteer the use of a Luton van Robert had just renovated, as well as their labour.

‘I’ll give you both a fiver,’ Natalie told the leather-jacketed friends. ‘A bit of beer money.’

‘What’s in it for me, babe?’ Robert asked her.

‘Well, Robert,’ Natalie said, ‘think of it as doing your bit for the community of single mothers, whose numbers you work so hard to multiply.’

One of the greasers laughed.

‘Shut it, Weasel,’ Robert told him. ‘What do you know?’ he demanded of Natalie.

‘You can shun responsibility, mister, but you can’t run away from rumours,’ Natalie told him.

‘Ah, come on, Rob,’ the other greaser said. ‘Let’s do our bit for fucking charity, eh?’

The decorators periodically brought further items of furniture outside, which they placed on the drive instead of throwing them into the skips because Natalie and her unlikely colleagues were hauling out of them any tables and cabinets which were still intact.

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